A part-time success story that exemplifies how, with consistent effort and the right company, you can make your ‘someday’ a reality now. About 6 years ago, we decided that since we were both employed by the same employer, we needed to create another stream of income outside of our corporate jobs. That decision was reinforced when the company that we work for was purchased by a competitor and over half of our co-workers lost their jobs. In the 3 months prior to our joining Watkins, we had investigated and joined 2 other companies. Both were network marketing businesses, one in the telecommunications area and the other selling a fruit juice. Annie just couldn’t get excited about marketing telecommunications services, and since we wanted to work together on our new business, we quit that business almost as soon as we started it. NULL Our investigation of the juice company was also short. We bought 8 bottles of juice, gave them to friends and family to try for 30 days. At the end of those 30 days, we solicited their opinions of the product. Not one person said that they felt it was doing anything for them, so we didn’t feel comfortable selling a product that we didn’t believe worked as advertised. Not only that, but the juice was quite expensive and we didn’t enjoy the taste! Through some research of network marketing companies, we found a list of the top 10 and Watkins was on that list.
We decided that the products were something we could both get excited about.
They were reasonably priced and with Watkins, we had a brand name that was over 130 years old. We started our business in March, 2001, and haven’t looked back. Our goal was to replace the income from our corporate jobs with a full time Watkins income. With the exception of the two companies mentioned above, we had never been in business for ourselves, never been in sales, and knew almost nothing about network marketing.
What we did know about network marketing was that for a very small investment of time and money, you could earn a very significant residual income.
A residual income is an income that you continue earning for years on the work you do today. Residual income is what makes owning a successful Watkins business a very smart business decision. During our first 6 months with Watkins we focused on retail sales and the only associates we sponsored where Mike’s brother, Tom, and Annie’s mother, Rosemary. We enjoyed retailing the products and we heard great stories from many customers who remembered the products being used in their families for generations. We also quickly realized that as much as we enjoyed retailing our great products, we couldn’t retail enough products working part-time to earn the amount of income we needed in order to quit our jobs. We decided late in 2001 that we needed to change our business strategy, so we started focusing more of our time on sponsoring new associates and growing our team of Watkins associates. By the end of 2002, our downline had grown from 2 to 182; we were excited to say the least. In 2003, we tripled in size and ended the year with 571 associates on our team, and by the end of 2004, we had almost 900 associates. Today, we have over 1300 associates on our team and our business volume is up considerably on a year over year basis.
By sponsoring associates, we learned the value of leverage. Network marketing works because many people working part-time can generate very large sales volumes.
Very large sales volume translates into significant income. So even though we only had a little time to market products ourselves, we could develop large sales volume by sponsoring others who were also only marketing a few products in their part-time business. And just as our sponsor and upline leaders earned a small income from us as we worked part-time, we also earned a small income from those that we sponsored. In fact, we could only reach our income goals if those we sponsored were also successful with their Watkins business. It was in our best interest to help and support those we sponsored, otherwise our income wouldn’t grow because the sales volume would not increase. That concept of helping others is what makes network marketing such a powerful business model. In addition, every new person we sponsor has the exact same opportunity that we had when we started! Since joining Watkins, in addition to a great residual income, we have also earned some incredible luxury trips. We have had all expense paid vacations to Maui, Hawaii, Ireland, Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, and Disney World. A couple of years ago, we also earned enough Performance Reward Points to take a cruise to Alaska, one of our dream vacations. Not only have we earned these trips, but on most of them, other members of our team have traveled with us!
We believe that everyone has a Someday.
You may hear yourself say things like— Someday, I’m going to take a vacation to— Or Someday, I’m going to be able to spend more time with my children— Or Someday, I’m going to retire and travel to—
With consistent effort and the right network marketing company, you can make your someday a reality while you are still young enough to enjoy it!
To your success, Mike & Annie
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